Civil Rights Wikispace- Please place your individual topic in the section below. Your entry should include a paragraph that explains the details and significance of the event AND 2-3 images that help to clarify what happened or who was involved.
Brown vs. Board of Education was a unanimous 9-0 decision stating "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."This unanimous decision overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and violated the Fourteenth Amendment.The Board of Education originally was following the 1879 Kansas Law which permitted but did not require districts to REMAIN separate only for elementary schools. The Board of Education started integrating elementary schools in Topeka in August 1953.
Ben Blevins
Frock
Bryan Rebert
Montgomery BusBoycott 1955- because of 42,000 black residents in Montgomery boycotted riding the buses for 381 days they carpooled took taxis and walked. finally afre 381 days they got there right to ride the bus and sit wherever they choose no more segregation on the busses, but not only in Montgomery but in all of America. Rosa Parks started it all by refusing to give her seat up to a white man when she was told to move to the back of the bus. this affected the bus company because they almost went out of bussiness because none of the blacks rode the bus and they were the majority of the money for the bus company but they almost put the bus company out of bussiness for the 381 days.
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Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing- On Sunday September 15, 1965 the members of the ku klux klan Bombed the 16th street Baptist Church. They killed 4 little girls.Killing Denise mcnair 11, Addie Mae Collins 14, Carole Roberson 14, and Cynthia Wesley 14. The 4 girls were ataneding Sunday school. Other people got hurt.They blam George Wallace the governer of Alabama. Robert Chambliss was identified a member of the ku klux klan as the man how placed the bombing in the Brimingham 16th street Baptist church bombing.
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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL
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The letter from Birmingham jail was a letter that MLK wrote to the white critics and white ministers. They wrote to him in jail asking the question why he is doing this and why are he and why are his people causing all this drama and getting himself and thrown in jail. He responded with a letter that he wrote in his cell telling them the reason for this. The reason he was doing all of was because people were not getting the same rights like everyone else.
MLK Assassination Dr King was shot dead in the southern US city of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions.A small-time thief named James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King from the bathroom of the flophouse across from where King was staying. Allegedly, Ray balanced on the edge of a bathtub, rested his rifle on the window sill, and fired a single shot that with trained-sniper perfection entered King in the head. No witness saw Ray shoot, although one claimed he saw a man leaving the bathroom around that time. A bag was found in front of a store near the rooming house, and the bag had a rifle sticking out of it. The rifle bore James Earl Ray's fingerprints. James Earl Ray confessed in court to the crime, and was sentenced to life instead of being given the death penalty due to that confession. Now why was he killed because we was a threat to white power
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Shawn and tim Bill of Rights Link-Here is the place where the rights are preserved! Alcatraz Island Takeover The members of the American Indian movement took over the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay to hightlight the plight of the American Indians. They maintained a presences for many months and helped force changes in government policy towards the American Indians. Wounded Knee (1973)- On February 27, 1973 members of AIM took over the area around the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890). They were protesting the treatment of American Indians by the Federal Government in general and the Bureau of Indian Affair in particular. While their siege was maintained they were surrounded by an overwhelming military force and threatened with violence. This created sympathy and understanding for the plight of Native Americans and prompted the beginning of changes.
American Indian Movement-
The American Indian Movement (AIM), is an Indianactivist organization in the United States. AIM burst onto the international scene with its seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and many others in the Native American community, almost 200 total. Russell Means was another early leader.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported other indigenous interests outside the United States as well.
Museum of the Native American-
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is a museum dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. It was established in 1989 through an Act of Congress. Operating under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. This museum was designed by Native Americans to showcase their cultures and history. The building itself is a well-designed monument to highlite the various habitats and styles of building for native peoples in the hemisphere.
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Alcatraz Island Takeover
Beginning on November 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans from many different tribes (many individual Native Americans relocated to the Bay Area under the Federal Indian Reorganization Act of 1934), occupied the island, and proposed an education center, ecology center and cultural center. According to the occupants, the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Sioux returned all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land to the Native people from whom it was acquired.
During the eighteen months of occupation, several buildings were damaged or destroyed by fires, including the recreation hall, the Coast Guard quarters and the Warden's home. The origins of the fires are unknown. A number of other buildings (mostly apartments) were destroyed by the U.S. Government after the occupation had ended. Graffiti from the period of Native American occupation are still visible at many locations on the island.[4]
During the occupation, the Indian termination policy, designed to end federal recognition of tribes, was rescinded by President Richard Nixon, and the new policy of self-determination was established, in part as a result of the publicity and awareness created by the occupiers. The occupation ended on June 11, 1971. ||
Title VII
An important provision within the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that "prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin." Sex was reportedly added to the originally bill in order to erode support for the other portions that had to do with race. Today the bill helps to promote equity regardless of the many factors that make us differ. Title IX
Title IX The title 9 act is now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, but more commonly known simply as title 9, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: That no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. The legislation covers all educational activities, and complaints under Title IX alleging discrimination in fields such as science or math education, or in other aspects of academic life such as access to health care and dormitory facilities, are not unheard of. It also applies to non-sport activities such as school bands, cheerleaders, and clubs; however, social fraternities and sororities, gender-specific youth clubs such as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and Girls State and Boys State are specifically exempt from Title IX requirements. Title IX is administered by the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. It applies to an entire school or institution if any part of that school receives federal funds; hence, athletic programs are subject to Title IX, even though there is very little direct federal funding of school sports. That is basical what the title 9 act is.
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The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan) Betty Friedan (February 4 1921- February 5, 2006) The Feminine Mystique, published 19 February1963 is a book written by Betty Friedan which brought to light the lack of fulfillment in many women's lives, which was generally kept hidden. “It ignited the contemporary women’s movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” The book came about after Friedan sent a questionnaire to the other women in her 1942 smith college graduating class. That the women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Betty Friedan is the Arthur The Feminine Mystique. She was an American feminist, activist and writer, best known for starting what is commonly known as the “second wave”
Minuteman Project- Minuteman Project is an activist organization started in April 2005 by a group of private individuals in the United States to monitor the US- Mexico border’s flow of illegal immigrants. This was co-founded by Jim Gilchrist. Militiamen who fought in the American Revolution War is how the name, minutemen came from. The Minuteman Project describes itself as “a citizens Neighboehood Watch on our border”
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Proposition 187 (California)- California proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative designed to deny illegal immigrants social service, health care, and public education. It was introduced by assemblyman Dick Mountjoy as the Save Our State initiative. The law required a person to prove their citizenship before they could have access to any government services. After it was approved by the voters of California a long court battle meant that it could not be enforced. A gathering of 250.000 protesters marched to highlight the unfairness of the law.
United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) is a labor union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by César Chávez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of a union of farmworkers almost overnight, when the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) went out on strike in support of the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by Larry Itliong in Delano, California who had previously initiated a grape strike on September 8, 1965. The NFWA and the AWOC, recognizing their common goals and methods, and realizing the strengths of coalition formation, jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966.[1[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Farm_Workers#cite_note-0|]]] This organization eventually became the United Farm Workers and launched a boycott of table grapes that, after five years of struggle, finally won a contract with the major grape growers in California.
"Operation Wetback" Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about four million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States. It focused on Mexican nationals. Many border control man walked into Mexican-American neighborhood and did random ID checks of Mexican-American looking people. By July many Mexican-Americans were caught in between two different states. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas and the INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas on their own. Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio.
Sylvia Mendez is an Latino civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage. At the age of eight, she played an important role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended segregation in California and set a precedent for the better-known Brown v. Board of Education seven years later and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement. Mendez grew up during a time when most southern and southwestern schools were segregated. In California Hispanics were not allowed to attend schools that were designated for "Whites" only and were sent to the so-called "Mexican schools." Sylvia Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites" only school, an event which prompted her parents to take action which would eventually bring to an end the era of segregated education.~Cristal Mendez~ Zoot Suit Riot
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. While Mexican Americans were the primary targets of military servicemen, African American and Filipino/Filipino American youth were also targeted. Local authorities and newspapers blamed the trouble and violence on the latinos youths that they called Pachucos. The authorities were reluctant to accept that the soldiers and sailors were racially motivated, however the military authorities forbade their personel from returning to the city. Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, called the incident a "race-riot" and called for more mutual understanding.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in April the 4th of 1968. He was 39 when he died. Martin Luther King Jr was staying in the Lorraine Motel in room 306. He was in Memphis to support a strike of the African- American sanitation workers. The assassination lead to a nationwide wave of riots in more then 60 cities. President Lyndon B. Johnson made a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader. Today we have a day to remember Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr., an Americancivil rights leader. King wrote the letter from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in a non-violent protest conducted against segregation.
King's letter is a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call For Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions such as his, true civil rights could never be achieved. As he put it, "This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" He asserted that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (Birmingham) The Birmingham bombing on September 15 of 1963, were caused by the incredible tensions occurring between the blacks and the whites at the time. The bombing was a terrorist tactic to frighten the local black community, however, the decided target was a church. As a result, at 10:18 four girls lost their lives. In addition to the four children killed in the bombings, twenty two others were injured. The church suffered immense damage. The KKK took responsibility for the act. Justice was prolonged and for quite some time, and until just recently, most of the party that were responsible had not suffered the consequences of their actions. The repercussions of the bombings echoed across the city, as riots erupted and violence broke out.
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Mongomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 1, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional. The boycotted started after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger. Local civil rights leaders and outsiders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully organized a boycott and a system of alternative transportation that crippled the city's bus line. This was one of the earliest and most successful civil rights protests of the modern civil rights era.
Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. District Court if Kansas reversed. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown was a parent , his daughter Linda had to walk six blocks to her school bus to ride to Monroe Elementary , segregated school one mile away while Summer Elementary school , white school was seven blocks away from her house.
Japanese American Internment
The forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor . The internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, whereas in Hawaii, where over 150,000 Japanese Americans composed nearly a third of that territory's population, an additional 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned. Of those interned, 62 percent were United States citizens. Unlike other civil rights injustices committed by the United States, this one was acknowledged and an apology and financial settlement were produced for the people where sent to camps.
Voting Rights Act of 1964
Alcatraz Take-Over On February 27th, 1973, Native Americans unhappy with their chairman of their reservation occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.The town was taken by a group of American Indians known as AIM, or American Indian Movement.The natives were upset with the changes in their land reservations due to Richard Wilson.They controlled the town for 71 days while U.S. military and U.S. Marshalls surrounded the town.The Indians took control of their own government for the first time in decades.This led to a civil war inside the group between the traditional Lakota government and the American influenced American government.The Indians lived a traditional way of life like their ancestors had before the arrival of the white man.They celebrated births, marriages, and deaths in the ancient ways.In the end over 1200 American Indians were arrested for practicing their freedom.Over 300 were blamed for unsolved murders.
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Brown vs. Board of Education was a unanimous 9-0 decision stating "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This unanimous decision overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Board of Education originally was following the 1879 Kansas Law which permitted but did not require districts to REMAIN separate only for elementary schools. The Board of Education started integrating elementary schools in Topeka in August 1953.
Ben Blevins
Frock
Bryan Rebert
Montgomery BusBoycott 1955- because of 42,000 black residents in Montgomery boycotted riding the buses for 381 days they carpooled took taxis and walked. finally afre 381 days they got there right to ride the bus and sit wherever they choose no more segregation on the busses, but not only in Montgomery but in all of America. Rosa Parks started it all by refusing to give her seat up to a white man when she was told to move to the back of the bus. this affected the bus company because they almost went out of bussiness because none of the blacks rode the bus and they were the majority of the money for the bus company but they almost put the bus company out of bussiness for the 381 days.
Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing- On Sunday September 15, 1965 the members of the ku klux klan Bombed the 16th street Baptist Church. They killed 4 little girls.Killing Denise mcnair 11, Addie Mae Collins 14, Carole Roberson 14, and Cynthia Wesley 14. The 4 girls were ataneding Sunday school. Other people got hurt.They blam George Wallace the governer of Alabama. Robert Chambliss was identified a member of the ku klux klan as the man how placed the bombing in the Brimingham 16th street Baptist church bombing.
The letter from Birmingham jail was a letter that MLK wrote to the white critics and white ministers. They wrote to him in jail asking the question why he is doing this and why are he and why are his people causing all this drama and getting himself and thrown in jail. He responded with a letter that he wrote in his cell telling them the reason for this. The reason he was doing all of was because people were not getting the same rights like everyone else.
MLK Assassination
Dr King was shot dead in the southern US city of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions.A small-time thief named James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King from the bathroom of the flophouse across from where King was staying. Allegedly, Ray balanced on the edge of a bathtub, rested his rifle on the window sill, and fired a single shot that with trained-sniper perfection entered King in the head. No witness saw Ray shoot, although one claimed he saw a man leaving the bathroom around that time. A bag was found in front of a store near the rooming house, and the bag had a rifle sticking out of it. The rifle bore James Earl Ray's fingerprints. James Earl Ray confessed in court to the crime, and was sentenced to life instead of being given the death penalty due to that confession. Now why was he killed because we was a threat to white power
Shawn and tim
Bill of Rights Link-Here is the place where the rights are preserved!
Alcatraz Island Takeover The members of the American Indian movement took over the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay to hightlight the plight of the American Indians. They maintained a presences for many months and helped force changes in government policy towards the American Indians.
Wounded Knee (1973)- On February 27, 1973 members of AIM took over the area around the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890). They were protesting the treatment of American Indians by the Federal Government in general and the Bureau of Indian Affair in particular. While their siege was maintained they were surrounded by an overwhelming military force and threatened with violence. This created sympathy and understanding for the plight of Native Americans and prompted the beginning of changes.
American Indian Movement-
The American Indian Movement (AIM), is an Indian activist organization in the United States. AIM burst onto the international scene with its seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. AIM was cofounded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai, and many others in the Native American community, almost 200 total. Russell Means was another early leader.
In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported other indigenous interests outside the United States as well.
Museum of the Native American-
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is a museum dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. It was established in 1989 through an Act of Congress. Operating under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. This museum was designed by Native Americans to showcase their cultures and history. The building itself is a well-designed monument to highlite the various habitats and styles of building for native peoples in the hemisphere.
Alcatraz Island Takeover
Beginning on November 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans from many different tribes (many individual Native Americans relocated to the Bay Area under the Federal Indian Reorganization Act of 1934), occupied the island, and proposed an education center, ecology center and cultural center. According to the occupants, the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Sioux returned all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land to the Native people from whom it was acquired.
During the eighteen months of occupation, several buildings were damaged or destroyed by fires, including the recreation hall, the Coast Guard quarters and the Warden's home. The origins of the fires are unknown. A number of other buildings (mostly apartments) were destroyed by the U.S. Government after the occupation had ended. Graffiti from the period of Native American occupation are still visible at many locations on the island.[4]
During the occupation, the Indian termination policy, designed to end federal recognition of tribes, was rescinded by President Richard Nixon, and the new policy of self-determination was established, in part as a result of the publicity and awareness created by the occupiers. The occupation ended on June 11, 1971. ||
An important provision within the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that "prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin." Sex was reportedly added to the originally bill in order to erode support for the other portions that had to do with race. Today the bill helps to promote equity regardless of the many factors that make us differ.
Title IX
Title IX The title 9 act is now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, but more commonly known simply as title 9, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: That no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. The legislation covers all educational activities, and complaints under Title IX alleging discrimination in fields such as science or math education, or in other aspects of academic life such as access to health care and dormitory facilities, are not unheard of. It also applies to non-sport activities such as school bands, cheerleaders, and clubs; however, social fraternities and sororities, gender-specific youth clubs such as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and Girls State and Boys State are specifically exempt from Title IX requirements. Title IX is administered by the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. It applies to an entire school or institution if any part of that school receives federal funds; hence, athletic programs are subject to Title IX, even though there is very little direct federal funding of school sports. That is basical what the title 9 act is.
Betty Friedan (February 4 1921- February 5, 2006)
The Feminine Mystique, published 19 February 1963 is a book written by Betty Friedan which brought to light the lack of fulfillment in many women's lives, which was generally kept hidden. “It ignited the contemporary women’s movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” The book came about after Friedan sent a questionnaire to the other women in her 1942 smith college graduating class. That the women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Betty Friedan is the Arthur The Feminine Mystique. She was an American feminist, activist and writer, best known for starting what is commonly known as the “second wave”
Minuteman Project-
Minuteman Project is an activist organization started in April 2005 by a group of private individuals in the United States to monitor the US- Mexico border’s flow of illegal immigrants. This was co-founded by Jim Gilchrist. Militiamen who fought in the American Revolution War is how the name, minutemen came from. The Minuteman Project describes itself as “a citizens Neighboehood Watch on our border”
Proposition 187 (California)-
California proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative designed to deny illegal immigrants social service, health care, and public education. It was introduced by assemblyman Dick Mountjoy as the Save Our State initiative. The law required a person to prove their citizenship before they could have access to any government services. After it was approved by the voters of California a long court battle meant that it could not be enforced. A gathering of 250.000 protesters marched to highlight the unfairness of the law.
The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) is a labor union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by César Chávez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of a union of farmworkers almost overnight, when the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) went out on strike in support of the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by Larry Itliong in Delano, California who had previously initiated a grape strike on September 8, 1965. The NFWA and the AWOC, recognizing their common goals and methods, and realizing the strengths of coalition formation, jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966.[1[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Farm_Workers#cite_note-0|]]] This organization eventually became the United Farm Workers and launched a boycott of table grapes that, after five years of struggle, finally won a contract with the major grape growers in California.
"Operation Wetback"
Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about four million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States. It focused on Mexican nationals. Many border control man walked into Mexican-American neighborhood and did random ID checks of Mexican-American looking people. By July many Mexican-Americans were caught in between two different states. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas and the INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas on their own. Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio.
Zoot Suit Riot
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. While Mexican Americans were the primary targets of military servicemen, African American and Filipino/Filipino American youth were also targeted. Local authorities and newspapers blamed the trouble and violence on the latinos youths that they called Pachucos. The authorities were reluctant to accept that the soldiers and sailors were racially motivated, however the military authorities forbade their personel from returning to the city. Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, called the incident a "race-riot" and called for more mutual understanding.
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6)[1[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965#cite_note-0|]]] outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States. Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibited states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."[2[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965#cite_note-1|]]] Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which southern states had prevented African-Americans from exercising the franchise.[3[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965#cite_note-2|]]]
MLK Assassination
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr., an American civil rights leader. King wrote the letter from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in a non-violent protest conducted against segregation.
King's letter is a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call For Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions such as his, true civil rights could never be achieved. As he put it, "This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" He asserted that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
The Birmingham bombing on September 15 of 1963, were caused by the incredible tensions occurring between the blacks and the whites at the time. The bombing was a terrorist tactic to frighten the local black community, however, the decided target was a church. As a result, at 10:18 four girls lost their lives. In addition to the four children killed in the bombings, twenty two others were injured. The church suffered immense damage. The KKK took responsibility for the act. Justice was prolonged and for quite some time, and until just recently, most of the party that were responsible had not suffered the consequences of their actions. The repercussions of the bombings echoed across the city, as riots erupted and violence broke out.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 1, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional. The boycotted started after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger. Local civil rights leaders and outsiders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully organized a boycott and a system of alternative transportation that crippled the city's bus line. This was one of the earliest and most successful civil rights protests of the modern civil rights era.
Japanese American Internment
The forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor . The internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, whereas in Hawaii, where over 150,000 Japanese Americans composed nearly a third of that territory's population, an additional 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned. Of those interned, 62 percent were United States citizens. Unlike other civil rights injustices committed by the United States, this one was acknowledged and an apology and financial settlement were produced for the people where sent to camps.
Alcatraz Take-Over
On February 27th, 1973, Native Americans unhappy with their chairman of their reservation occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The town was taken by a group of American Indians known as AIM, or American Indian Movement. The natives were upset with the changes in their land reservations due to Richard Wilson. They controlled the town for 71 days while U.S. military and U.S. Marshalls surrounded the town. The Indians took control of their own government for the first time in decades. This led to a civil war inside the group between the traditional Lakota government and the American influenced American government. The Indians lived a traditional way of life like their ancestors had before the arrival of the white man. They celebrated births, marriages, and deaths in the ancient ways. In the end over 1200 American Indians were arrested for practicing their freedom. Over 300 were blamed for unsolved murders.